Height and dimensions: Consider the height of the tree you’d like to purchase, bearing in mind that you’ll need to access the top of the tree for decorating. If the ceilings in your home are within the standard (American) eight to nine foot range, a 7.5 foot tree is probably ideal for you. The dimensions of the tree you purchase should be dependent on where you’re displaying it. If you’re placing it in a small corner, a narrow tree is best, whereas a tree with a wide girth is best for a front and center display.

Artificial Christmas trees aren’t for everyone. If they are your cup of tea, though, it makes sense to invest in one that’s attractive, functional and good quality for the price. We recommend the Best Choice Products – Premium Spruce to satisfy that trifecta. It looks full and festive, and comes together quickly with under an hour of setup. At less than $100, it’s also great quality for a low price. The National Tree Company – North Valley Spruce is another excellent choice. It’s the easiest and most convenient tree to set up in under an hour and its varied-length branch tips make it look more realistic. If you need a small tree, the Home Accents Holiday – 3 Foot Unlit Tacoma Pine is a quality investment with its soft branch tips and below $20 price point.

More than a decade ago, the only material used in trees was polyvinyl chloride. Now, on good trees, PVC appears only as the obviously fake filler branches near the tree’s trunk. PVC is cheaper to produce than PE, and it’s also a lot lighter, so the mixed materials help to balance beauty, cost, and weight. All the trees we considered for this guide consisted of realistic PE branch tips around a lighter, cheaper PVC core. Even though all-PVC trees are still widely available, we don’t recommend them. From a distance they look like trees, but up close they look terrible. On the plus side, however, they are cheap: A 6-foot tree shouldn’t cost more than $100. Also, what was once a genuine health concern—the use of lead as a PVC stabilizer—is no longer an issue in most artificial trees sold in the US, according to National Tree Company and the American Christmas Tree Association, which represents artificial-tree companies.
This festive 48 in. Pre-Lit Natural Royal Grand This festive 48 in. Pre-Lit Natural Royal Grand Spruce Artificial Christmas Wreath is a beautiful centerpiece for doors windows or above the mantel. It has pure white micro-style and multicolored faceted LEDs that use up to 80% less energy than incandescent lighting keeping your electricity costs minimized all season long. ... More + Product Details Close
Real vs. fake. Which is better? It’s a highly-contested topic each holiday season, and it’s one that the American Christmas Tree Association (the organization representing the artificial tree industry) and the National Christmas Tree Association (the organization representing the real tree industry) take seriously. Both groups make their cases for selecting either a real or faux tree, and we used them to inform our comparison.
The large version can hold a tree as tall as 12 feet with a trunk as wide as seven inches. The wide pan reservoir makes getting in under the branches to top off the tree’s water supply easier than it is with most other stands. Plus, it kind of looks like the Christmas tree stand an elf would carry around with him, in case that’s the vibe you’re going for.

The Downswept Douglas Fir’s lights give off the intense colors characteristic of LEDs. With 750 bulbs on a 7½-foot tree, it exactly meets our 100-bulbs-per-foot recommendation. The all-white setting has a rich golden tone; the multicolor setting is bright and pure. To people used to the softer glow of incandescent bulbs, the effect may appear a little harsh. If you’d prefer the same tree strung with all-white or multicolor incandescents, you can usually find one for the same price or less, but you’ll get only three or four seasons of light life, whereas LEDs may run for a decade or more with normal use. (A string of 300 white or multicolor incandescents runs about $10 at Home Depot currently; you would need three strings, or about $30 worth, to meet the “at least 100 lights per foot of tree” guideline for our 7½-foot tree picks.)

One of the Krinner’s other major advantages is the ability to handle a wide range of trunk sizes. With the claws cranked all the way down, this stand will hold a tree with a trunk as small as 1 inch in diameter. The maximum trunk diameter it will accept is 7 inches. That gives you a lot of flexibility on tree sizes. When testing on our smaller tree, with its 3.5-inch diameter trunk, some other stands’ screws could barely extend far enough to meet the trunk (and they wouldn’t work with a tree any smaller than that).

For one, several of this GE tree’s specs are favorable when compared with our top pick from National Tree. It’s the same height and width, but it has more branch tips for a fuller appearance (2,073 versus 1,867). Like our top pick, the GE lets you switch between white and multicolor lighting modes; additionally, the lights connect automatically through the central pole as you assemble the three sections of the tree, a handy (but not vital) feature. But we especially love the way GE’s LED Christmas lights look—in our test of Christmas lights, we found GE’s tones closest to the familiar warm glow of incandescent bulbs. That’s not to say anything against National Tree’s lights: We found them very pretty, especially the pale gold of the white-light setting. But if you seek something close to the incandescent look, the GE tree may be your ticket.
The Peanuts Charlie Brown Christmas Tree has become one of the most recognizable and heart-warming holiday icons. The wilted branch has a single ornament attached and is finished off with the Linus blanket dressed around the base of the tree as a skirt. It is sure to bring the true spirit of Christmas to the holiday season as it plays the classic Peanuts theme song, all you need to add is love.
Perhaps a good “starter tree” for a young family, it has all of the basic functionalities like quick-set technology and an included stand, lights and fuses. However, this tree’s comparatively low price point shows through in its branch tip count (just 1000 tips) and only 500 lights. Even less reassuringly, the lights are incandescent, which means you risk burnout before you’ve gotten the most out of your tree.

The debate about the environmental impact of artificial trees is ongoing. Generally, natural tree growers contend that artificial trees are more environmentally harmful than their natural counterparts.[107] However, trade groups such as the American Christmas Tree Association, continue to refute that artificial trees are more harmful to the environment, and maintain that the PVC used in Christmas trees has excellent recyclable properties.[109]

Finally, with the tree all snug, we struck different parts of the tree using a 10-pound weight hanging from a three-foot length of cord attached to an adjustable frame. To keep the force consistent, we pulled the cord back until it was at a 45-degree angle and let gravity do the rest. After each swing of the weight, we measured how far each stand was pushed back.

^ Jump up to: a b Perry, Joe (27 September 2010). Christmas in Germany: A Cultural History. University of North Carolina Press. p. 32. ISBN 9780807899410. A chronicle from Stasbourg, written in 1604 and widely seen as the first account of a Christmas tree in German-speaking lands, records that Protestant artisans brought fir trees into their homes in the holiday season and decorated them with "roses made of colored paper, apples, wafers, tinsel, sweetmeats, etc." ... The Christmas tree spread out in German society from the top down, so to speak. It moved from elite households to broader social strata, from urban to rural areas, from the Protestant north to the Catholic south, and from Prussia to other German states.

“This is a beautiful tree! When you first receive it, you might be worried that it’s too sparse, but it is packed very well, so you must take the time to fluff out each branch. Once we put the lights and ornaments on it, there were no open spaces to see between the branches. I liked that it was not as wide at the bottom as our previous tree. It took up less space width-wise and used fewer ornaments, but still has a very full look. It also doesn’t shed.”
Linus and the others, realizing they were too hard on Charlie Brown, quietly follow him to Snoopy's doghouse. Linus admits he always liked the tree while gently propping the drooping branch back in its upright position and wraps his blanket around its base, and when the others add the remaining decorations from Snoopy's doghouse to the tree, Lucy agrees. They start humming "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing". Charlie Brown returns, surprised at the humming and the redecorated tree, and the gang all joyously shout "Merry Christmas, Charlie Brown!" They all begin to sing "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing," and Charlie Brown joins them as the special ends.
Ease of assembly, disassembly and storage: Most of the artificial trees on the market (including the ones on our list) come in three parts that are easy to click together. However, the process of “fluffing” the tree (spreading the tips apart and arranging the branches) can be time consuming. The more time you spend fluffing your tree, the better it will look. More on that later.
Wayfair carries all that you're looking for and more when decorating your home inside and out, especially for Christmas time. Everything from fresh cut Christmas wreaths, faux florals for the table, Christmas swags, hanging accessories and so much more— you can find it all on Wayfair. With great options like lighted garlands for shoppers looking to brighten up their door or staircase, to classic Christmas swag to use in your table settings, Wayfair is a one-stop-shop for all things home during the holiday season. Take a look below for a detailed description of all our holiday wreaths available for purchase.
Many of our wreaths, garland, and swags also offer the option of pre-strung lighting or permanent decorations. Pre-decorated wreaths and garlands add a lot of warmth and character to a space and can create a polished, cohesive look with their coordinating style. These also spare you the effort of decorating the greenery yourself and painstakingly attaching décor to every swag, wreath, and teardrop.

Tree Genie Live Tree Stand comes with the inventor’s original single cable operation and with water level indicator. It also includes 5 stabilizer feet for additional security. Just place your tree in the opened stand, hold it straight and pump the foot pedal until the claws firmly hold the trunk. Your tree will be straight and ready in just seconds.

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The modern Christmas tree is frequently traced to the symbolism of trees in pre-Christian winter rites, wherein Viking and Saxon worshiped trees.[14] The story of Saint Boniface cutting down Donar's Oak illustrates the pagan practices in 8th century among the Germans. A later folk version of the story adds the detail that an evergreen tree grew in place of the felled oak, telling them about how its triangular shape reminds humanity of the Trinity and how it points to heaven.[15][16]